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PCI-6602 won't output SOMETIMES

We have three test cells using my software and each of them has one output from a PCI-6602 counter/timer card.  In one of the test cells, it seems as though once a week or so the program will update the duty cycle, but the board will not send it out.  All of the software is the same, and the demanded duty cycle will be displayed on the screen but the o-scope does not record anything.
 
I tried resetting the device much like I have to reset the SCXI modules before each test, but then it threw a DAQmx error saying that the device had been disconnected...
 
Any ideas?
 
Thanks.
Programming Data Acquisition and Control in Measurement Studio and Labwindows/CVI
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Hi SCXI and MS 2k3-VB.NET,

I hope you're doing well.  I don't see any particular reason this would happen only on one of the set ups, but hopefully we can troubleshoot it a bit to pinpoint the problem.  If the application is the same on all machines, the only thing I would be concerned about in the software realm is the version of the DAQmx driver.  Just to confirm, are these the same on all stations?  If not, we may want to make sure they are all matched to the "working" version.  It may be a hardware problem from what we know so far about the issue.  Are all PCs the same model? Particularly, different motherboards may have a hand in issues like this.  If there are slight differences in PC hardware, but we may want to try to swap 6602 between machines as well to see if the problem follows the cards or stays with that particular PC.  Besides the 6602, what other hardware (NI or otherwise) is in that machine?  If it's possible, we may want to even try to strip the machine down to just the 6602.  I realize some of these troubleshooting steps may be difficult if the test machine is in use often, but these would be good first steps to take to help diagnose the problem.  Let us know what you find, and we will be glad to keep helping you.  Have a great day!

Thaison V
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
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Through phone text message feedback I saw that the temperature was not getting hot enough last week so I came in that evening and just switched the output from the 6602 to one of the counters on the MIO board.  This fixed the problem.
 
All three PCs have very similiar hardware.  They also have the same versions of Measurement Studio and DAQmx (Nov, 2005).  I'm not sure why we use 6602s when we already have 2 counter/timers on each system.
 
Our DAQ guy is going to play with this card and see if he can acheive the same results.  I doubt he will since it was intermittent, but as long as the cell is running I'm OK.  Perhaps we may send it back for refurbishing and you guys can find the problem??
Programming Data Acquisition and Control in Measurement Studio and Labwindows/CVI
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SCXI and MS 2k3-VB.NET,

We can repair the board, but typically we'd like to do a bit of troubleshooting with you a head of time so we can provide our RMA technicians as much information as possible so they know what to test exactly.  If we were to repair the device, you would need to create a service request with us via email or the phone, and we could help you from there.

Before we get there though, I am still interested in a couple of things.  You mention the DAQmx version is "Nov, 2005" which is probably version 8.0, but can you see which one it is in particular?  This can be found in the Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) by expanding the Software tree and selecting the NI-DAQmx entry.  You also mention that the hardware is very similar, but do you know what the differences are exactly if they are not identical?  Lastly, your DAQ guy was going to play with the card and may already do this, but trying the 6602 on another machine would be a great way to test this as well.  Let us know how this all turns out though.  Thanks!

Thaison V
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

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